Kukla's Korner Hockey

“We had a group in the running for this. We lost to Koules, and we lost to (current owner) Jeff (Vinik). We raised an awful lot of money. We had enough money to buy five franchises. I don’t think we got outbid. I think (NHL commissioner Gary) Bettman thought Jeff was the right guy. And so do I.

“We were close (to buying the team). We were really close. We went to New York, met with attorneys and different people. We stopped short of Gary because we wanted to be absolutely sure before we got to him.’‘

-Phil Espostio talking about a group he was part of that was prepared to buy the Lightning. More on Tampa from Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times.